Persona: A Novelization 4

by RionAgrias

If Persona 4 was a novella, loosely based. There is one OC, out of request. The battle style is also written differently from the actual game style, so please bear with me. I am editing every chapter. Bear with me as I slowly fix grammar and formatting.

21. Chapter 21

RepresentationofP4Ch.21

I can't tell you how hard this chapter will be and is to write. For most of this chapter my point of view will be a character that isn't in the game's Shadow. Difficult indeed… The violence for the first time will start being much more graphic, especially in this chapter. The language is kind of icky too.

I own not SMT or Persona

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After the group had headed into the TV, the mood was a solemn one because of the one who was kidnapped. They all thought that they could rescue her, but it still was worrisome that Nanako was actually inside the TV. Souji was the one who was the most worried, even more than Teddie. Sure, they had someone looking for her already in there, but now they had to worry about him being alone in there too.

"Look at this thick fog!" Yosuke said when they got into the TV.

Yukiko asked, "Does this have something to do with all the fuss about the fog recently?"

"That's a reasonable assumption," Souji said. "I feel like Rion," Souji was thinking, "And that's the sad part, considering he's not here." He didn't know what he was talking about, assumptions and crap.

"Something's weird in here," Teddie told the group, "I think all the commotion in town is affecting this world, too."

"I guess we'll have to hurry now," Souji said, "Rise, can you tell which direction Nanako-chan and maybe Rion is in there as well?"

Rise walked away from the group to go scanning. "I sense her… that way," she pointed to the bottom-right of the plaza, "Wow… What's this warm feeling? Senpai, we need to save her!"

"Right…," Souji said. He was thinking, "I wonder if some of your warm feeling was sensing Rion too."

"Let's go!" Chie exclaimed.

The group walked over to where Rise had pointed. It was the prettiest area they had went to fight and or save someone since they began to search for the killer.

"This is… Nanako-chan's…," Yukiko was shocked.

"It's so beautiful," Rise said happily, "It's like a storybook vision of heaven."

"Like heaven, huh?" Yosuke said worriedly, "Deep down, Nanako-chan must really miss her."

"I can't believe," Souji shook his head, "I don't know how she copes…"

"I'm sure she does. She's only a child," Yukiko said. She looked at Souji with sympathy, "We have to do everything in our power to rescue her!"

"As long as I have all of you guys," Souji said.

"Of course!" Teddie agreed, "We're gonna rescue Nana-chan, no matter what!"

"We can find Namatame later, and give him what's coming to him then!" Yosuke told them, "First, we need to rescue Nanako-chan!"

Souji was thinking to himself, "I do need everyone, but I don't really have everyone here. Stupid Rion, thinking he needs to do this himself."

They decided to enter Heaven for the first time. They soon found it closer to being sent to Hell. The first dungeon was a royal pain without Rion they decided.

It sucked for Souji that the first Shadow they fought in the whole place was one of those magus-type Shadows.

"Come on," Yukiko fired another "Agidyne!" at it, but it didn't work too well.

"Suzuka Gongen!" Chie exclaimed, "Bufula!" That didn't work very well either.

"Dance with me," Yosuke started to fight with his kunai after the mage fired "Agidyne!"

"Rokuten Maoh!" "Mighty Swing!" Kanji yelled to damage one.

"Seiryu!" "Ziodyne!" Souji took one out with his electricity while dodging the flames.

"Geez, that was no fun," Teddie said, patting out some flames on his fur. His claw had magus goop on it.

Turning the corner, they ran into sand-Shadows. They were similar to what they had fought in Naoto's place.

"Go, Suzuka Gongen! Heat Wave!" It knocked the Shadows back some.

Then the Shadows casted "Old One!" It made them all tired and suck.

"Teddie is all tired," Rise said.

"Amaterasu!" "Maragion!" Yukiko's attack finished off the Shadows.

The first floor was full of those enemies that look like one enemy, and then turn into huge faces. Those Shadows were pains-in-the-asses. They liked to lower defenses, raises attacks, and lower agility. At least it wasn't strong against anything, so it was fair game with any Personas. Actually, the group used chairs, kunai, swords, and guns against it.

"Take this!" Souji said as he drove his katana into its face. Kanji followed up with his chair and a bullet rang out in between its eyes, or where its eyes would have been.

"We need to hurry," Naoto said as the group entered the 2nd floor, "Nanako could be in danger."

More exciting experiences awaited them in the 2nd floor. The same Shadows they met on the first were on the 2nd floor, plus exciting new ones.

"It just keeps getting more and more fun!" Souji exclaimed sarcastically.

"Tell me about it!" Yosuke answered.

As soon as they walked up the stairs, there were eagle Shadows, similar to many others they had fought.

"Hear me Amaterasu!" Yukiko yelled. They swooped at her, and Souji and Yosuke intercepted them to hold them off, while Yukiko finished her incantation. "Maragion!" The one that survived the fire was destroyed by the Sun Goddess' swords.

"Alright," Yukiko said… "Hey guys…" she pointed down the way, "More Shadows!"

There were gigas. It was Rion's second favorite kind of Shadows to fight. Souji drew his sword and summoned "Seiryu!" "Matarukaja!" The dragon wrapped around one of the muscular giants and the leader yelled, "Ziodyne!" to shock the Shadow.

"All yours!" "Yamato Takeru!" "Deathbound!" All of the attacks from the others were halted as the giants were suddenly hit by a small Persona flying around and slashing the Shadows multiple times. They were destroyed. It was an attack worthy of Rion.

Two corridors around the floor they saw a stupid book Shadow, which Teddie massacred. Kintoki-Douji and his "Mabufula" made mincemeat of it. "Let's go wild!" as everyone charged in and rushed to do some studying. When they ran into some more, they used "Marakarakarn!"

"So, what do we do?" Yosuke asked.

"This…," Souji said, "Byakko!" "Deathbound!" The snow tiger's claws ravaged the books.

"Good job," Yukiko congratulated.

The tanks attacked the group, and fired into them causing "Diarahan!" and "Mediarama!" casts.

"Magarula!" Yosuke exclaimed, knocking the two tanks into each other, and exploding.

There were two kinds of Shadows facing them at the edge of the stairs of the second floor. "Shit!" Souji said.

A large fortress-looking Shadow, and one with a sword.

"Split up!" Souji yelled.

The castle was taken by Yosuke.

"Be careful!" Yosuke said as Chie was knocked over when she tried to attack. She tried to use her ice and was blown back.

"Ahh!" Chie yelled.

"You're gonna pay! "Susano-O! Garudyne!" This knocked down and decimated the Shadow.

The fort was flanked by Souji and Naoto.

"Mudoon!" Naoto's small Persona fired a dark blast that annihilated the Shadow.

"Did we survive?" Teddie asked.

The group nodded, and Teddie casted "Mediarama!" with Kintoki-Douji.

So the group reached the third floor. They noticed something wrong with this place. Like something else beside Nanako was here.

"Yay, new kinds of Shadows to kill us!" Yosuke said in jest.

Souji rolled his eyes, "Oh, fuck me sideways!"

"Souji!" Yukiko hit him over the head.

There were different Shadows here besides the new ones from the 2nd floor. There was that Shadow who had spikes on different ends of his head. It had wheels as well, and it

liked to skewer the enemy. Any Persona would work, but it still hurt when it hit.

"That hurt, bitch!" Chie yelled, "Bufula!"

"Language!" Yukiko reminded her but that didn't stop her from attacking the Shadows with the same zeal as Chie, "Agidyne!"

As soon they finished with that Shadow, they turned to see a Shadow with faces on it. It towered over the others.

"Don't use Electric skills," Rise warned.

"You heard her," Souji said.

"Garudyne!" Yosuke fired his wind to knock off the top half of the Shadow.

They had to run into the one snake Shadow per dungeon.

Souji's sword and Yosuke's kunai started making a dent in them, but they had to move away from the poison the snakes were sending, plus they kept making the group attack each other.

"Go, Kintoki-Douji!" "Mabufula!" Teddie yelled. The shards of ice that flew into the snakes went all the way up past the crosses until they shattered.

"Let's continue," Souji said.

You know… It wouldn't be a dungeon if they did not run into at least one dice Shadow.

It was only affected by physical attacks, and were accompanied by those plant-like Shadows that had those wing-like appendages on them that spammed "Garudyne!" and "Bufudyne!" Even the dice came in pairs.

"Why!?" Kanji yelled, after using "Mighty Swing!" and failing to kill one of the dice in time, and it blowing up in his face.

"I'll help!" "Heat Wave!" Suzuka Gongen, still did not move fast enough, or inflict enough pain.

Souji's blade, Yosuke's kunai, or Teddie's claws still didn't do enough damage to kill the dice, or the other Shadows. It even was not worth it to use Yukiko's magic on the other type of Shadows, because you could not attack them in pairs because they were always around the dice, so you risked hitting the dice.

"Allow me," Naoto said, as she came forward.

"Be careful, Naoto-kun!" Rise exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Naoto smiled. "Megidola!" An attack similar to the dice's "Last Resort!" blasted through every enemy and destroyed them.

"That was a relief," Souji said as he removed his jacket temporarily to view all the holes from the explosions. "Damn… I ruin at least one jacket per rescue."

"Mediarama!" Teddie and Yukiko said simultaneously to try and heal all of the numerous minor cuts on their bodies.

They started hearing voices after walking into a door on the fourth floor.

"Mom…," a voice that sounded like Nanako rang out.

"That's Nana-chan's voice!" Teddie exclaimed.

"Mom… Where are you?" Nanako asked, "Why did you disappear? Why did you leave me? No… Come back!"

Chie asked, "Are these… Nanako-chan's feelings?"

"But I'm not lonely… I have Dad with me," Nanako told herself, "I know he's always late coming home… and he never plays with me because he's so busy. He can't cook or do laundry either. He tries to be nice, though he is a little scary sometimes, but I love him. Big bro is with me now, too… So I'm not alone. I'm not lonely."

Kanji said, "A little kid… telling herself she's not lonely so she doesn't fall apart."

"You idiot, you'll ruin everything if we act all sad," Yosuke looked at him, "We gotta greet her with a smile."

"Nana-chan…," Teddie lamented. Souji sighed.

As they looked down, they noticed Rise look up. Naoto noticed this.

"What's the matter?" Naoto asked Rise.

"Something's not right. There's someone here besides Nanako-chan," Rise said, "It was faint at first, so I couldn't tell for sure… But there's definitely at least one other person beside Nanako here. And whoever this is… Their power is getting stronger."

"Is it Namatame? Or is it Rion?" Souji asked. "If it isn't Rion… Is this the other reason Rion came in here?" Souji thought.

"Did Namatame duck in here after being cornered?" Yosuke asked, "Like Mitsuo?"

"Perhaps so," Naoto said, "It would seem if he was particularly determined to kidnap Nanako-chan."

"But why?" Yukiko asked, "If he's the real culprit, then he must know the real dangers of coming into this world."

"I don't know," Naoto admitted, "But if it is him, he may have entered from a TV near the site of the accident… Perhaps even the TV in his truck, like Rion. Which means Nanako-chan may be in grave danger! We must hurry!" She was thinking, "We don't have much time at all."

As soon as they started walking again, Rise tumbled to the ground.

"Rise-chan!" Yukiko cried as Rise hit the ground. Chie and Yukiko hit the ground as well as they tried to rush to her.

"What's the matter!?" Souji yelled.

"It's him…," Rise said, "He's coming out of hiding. It's so powerful. He's here."

"Namatame!?" Yosuke asked.

"No…, me!" a Shadow walked forward. It was very tall, and very muscular. He was much more muscular and much taller than any normal man. It looked like Rion if he'd been a knife fight with Kanji; his clothes were all torn and ripped. He was all carrying a wicked ball and chain.

"Rion…!" Chie exclaimed, "You're here!?"

"Guys, this is his Shadow!" Teddie told them. The purple flames around him were higher than other any they've seen.

"Where's the real Rion?" Rise demanded of the Shadow.

"That pansy?" the Shadow looked at them with malice in his eyes, "That loser is off somewhere. He is probably looking for some little girl. We'll deal with him in good time."

"Little girl…," Souji said, "Nanako!"

"Where's Nanako-chan!?" Chie yelled.

"The hell if I know!?" the Shadow yelled back, "All I know is that I can't stand you guys."

"What are you talking about?" Naoto asked.

"You guys are the biggest pain in the ass ever. You rush off trying to find someone and waste my precious time. This case would have been over by now if you weren't so damn stupid!" the Shadow was taunting them, "Why do you think Rion runs off to save this worthless child himself? It's because you just get in his damn way! It's the same way with these girls." The Shadow pointed at Rise and Naoto.

"This is Rion's Shadow?" Rise was looking confused. She shed a tear, "That can't be him. Why is he so hateful?"

"I'll be waiting. I'm going to go find and kick well… my own ass, I guess. This will be a fight to remember. Don't forget to watch kids!"

"The Match of the Century… Mano v. Mano! Fight to the Death!" it said overhead.

The Shadow disappeared into the fog as it slowly started walking off.

"What in the world just happened?" Yosuke asked the group as the others got up.

"That was Rion's Shadow, I guess," Souji said, "It looked terrifying."

Yukiko grasped Souji's hand as she had realized the danger Rion was in, "We need to save him too."

"Its power… was scary. We need to find it before it finds Rion-kun," Rise told the others, "It plans on fighting Rion alone. I think Rion wants to fight it alone too, but it's so strong."

"What did you get yourself into, Rion-san?" Naoto shook her head in frustration as she thought to herself, "I want to be able to protect you too, like you protected me."

The group continued down the 4th floor. There were no new enemies in the 4th floor, so before moving through the 5th floor, the group called it quits.

The Persona-users were glad to leave Heaven for today, but had regrets of not being able to save Nanako. They were kind of scared of what would happen to her if they took too long.

Yukiko went home with Chie because Yosuke was taking Teddie with him. So, Souji went back to his temporary home by himself. It was eerie how quiet it was inside the home. It was typical for Dojima not to be home, but not having Nanako here... She was so cheerful. Souji remembered when he couldn't stand the girl, but he grew to like having his "little sis" around.

He was rather sad at being alone in the home.

"We need to save her," he thought to himself about Namatame being in there with her.

Souji shrugged as he looked about the living room. They lacked having Rion in the dungeon with them. "We need to get him back as soon as possible," he thought.

Rion didn't have the skills Rise had in analyzing the enemy, but he was the field commander. Souji got all the information from Rise about weaknesses and strengths, but Rion was able to put them to utilize the information better than anyone. He was the best pure fighter too.

"We need to need to go back tomorrow", he decided.

Souji walked to school the next day with trepidation. He was asked a question in school that day.

Which pole is colder, "The south or the north pole?" Souji's cheat sheet was gone too. To him, this sucked. The teachers did find it suspicious that the only time that Rion was awake was when Souji or someone else needed an answer.

Souji did get the answer right by answering the South Pole. "I'm smarter than I look," Souji thought. It had to be the ramen he was eating.

Like he had decided yesterday, the group met up at the "headquarters" after school. They knew what they needed to do to succeed. Souji knew he needed to get as close as they to rescuing Nanako as possible today.

"Let's go, Senpai," Kanji said as the group headed into the TV world.

"Are you ready to go, Senpai?" Rise asked when they reached the plaza.

"Yeah… I'm ready," Souji answered.

And the second foray into Heaven began on the fifth floor. Would it end up even more hellish than before? They could only decide that for themselves.

The Shadows that appeared on the fifth floor were different from the ones experienced from earlier floors except for the dice-exploding ones and the mother Shadows that casted double elemental spells. And the new ones seemed even worse.

There was a balance-looking Shadow that was colored gold, but it had no weaknesses.

"Just hit it with everything you got!" Souji yelled.

"Bufudyne!" Teddie attacked with Kintoki-Douji.

"Go, Susano-O!" "Garudyne!" Yosuke attacked with his wind.

"Agidyne!" the flames from the sun burned with Yukiko.

"Here now!" "Mighty Swing!" Kanji's Rokuten Maoh slammed his sword into a balance.

After a few of those attacks the balances were defeated.

Strolling up the 5th floor the Persona users met the table Shadows with the silverware and flames on them.

The Shadows fired "Maragion!"

"Shit…," Yosuke yelled, "I'm on fire!"

Chie fired a small stream of ice from her Persona, "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah…," Yosuke said, "Susano-O!" "Magarula!" They continued with an all-out-attack. "Let's go partner!" Yosuke yelled.

Hence, the mighty swings of chairs and swords went forward and pummeled thou that would get in their way.

They just turned the corner when Souji had to slash into plant-like Shadows with flowers on them that tried to run into him. Yosuke tried to slash into them as well.

"Mahamaon!" Naoto exclaimed and Yamato Takeru destroyed the Shadows.

As they got to the 6th floor, there was a problem.

"Why is Nanako being drowned out by Namatame?" Teddie lamented.

"We need to hurry," Souji said.

"Yay! New Shadows!" Yosuke exclaimed, "What do we get to kill now!?"

"Shut up!" Chie hit him over the head.

"Chie!" Yukiko reprimanded her.

"Guys…," Kanji warned them as one of the Shadows showed up.

It was a huge giant-looking Shadow with a huge-ass sword.

"Thanks a lot, guys," Souji said, "Now look what happened," as Souji dodged the giant's sword.

"Shut up, Souji, and just kill it!" Naoto yelled.

"Clotho!" "Garula!" The giant was knocked over, and they proceeded to beat the giant over the head with blunt objects.

"About time," Yosuke said.

"You could have done that just as easily," Chie told him.

"Shut up," Yosuke sighed.

"They do argue like a married couple," Rise chuckled.

"We don't!" both of them yelled.

All of them laughed at that. It brought their minds away from their goal for a few seconds. The whole group all knew that this whole situation was exhausting and straining.

Having Nanako captured, and racing to save her as fast as they can was pushing each other's buttons and Souji wanted it to be over so they could all take a rest.

Rise's new Persona was rather useful. She could detect enemies before they attacked, and could tell at least a weakness beforehand. Kanzeon was definitely an upgrade over Himiko. Souji knew it wouldn't be enough if they moved at this pace though. They'd have to move faster to rescue Nanako.

There was a plant-Shadow that was similar to the place in Naoto's.

It swung at Souji, and he moved out of the way. Souji retaliated with his sword.

"Bufudyne!" Teddie yelled, and it shattered. With Chie and the bear they turned the plants into ice cubes.

The biggest disaster of the 6th floor was a cube-like Shadow that had tessellations and would float in the air. When the tessellations went away, it would reveal a small person with a staff casting "Megidoloan". That was a big pain in the ass.

"Damn!" Souji thought as he was knocked over. He watched all of the others fly to the ground.

"Tam Lin!" "Ziodyne!" Souji fired back at the Shadow with the thunderbolt.

"Yamato Takeru!" "Megidola!" Naoto shot the card to try and add her own spin on the almighty.

Ice ended up being a no-go, and only caused more pain for them. So… Teddie used, "Mediarama!"

"Amaterasu!" "Agidyne!" Yukiko sliced her card with the fan as the flames rushed towards the little man protected by the cube.

As Yosuke added the wind, and Kanji slammed into the Shadow, the little man finally died.

Whenever they killed one of those Shadows, all of them rejoiced and Teddie casted "Mediarama!"

"Thank god that's over!" Souji muttered as he felt the healing from Teddie wash over him. The blood on his face disappeared. The small gouge on his face had been completely healed.

Yosuke sighed, "I don't want to go through anymore of those."

Naoto shook her head, "These fights are dangerous for our health. We should avoid fighting any more of these Shadows."

The 7th floor had no new Shadows, but plenty of those sigil-Shadows and table-Shadows.

"This is annoying," Kanji grunted.

The group arrived at a door and heard voices.

"Turn back!" the voice said, "Stop getting in my way!"

They opened the door to see what was in their way. It was a huge golden-balance. It was much bigger than some of the ones they experienced on the earlier floors.

The voice continued, "Why are you getting in my way!? I'm… I'm going to save this girl!"

The balance Shadow would start off by casting "Mind Charge" every once in a while.

"This Shadow is gonna be tough guys!" Rise warned, "Be careful!"

The Shadow was faster than every one. It was a pure magic-based Shadow, as it would only cast pure –dyne based spells. So, that meant it would cast "Bufudyne" "Garudyne" "Ziodyne" and "Agidyne" randomly at the various members of the party. Without Rion to boost their attack or defense, they relied on Teddie instead.

Teddie yelled out, "Go, Kintoki-Douji! Marakukaja!"

"Susano-O!" "Masukukaja!" Yosuke boosted their speed.

Kanji boosted their offense with "Matarukaja!"

"Ziodyne!" "Tam Lin!" Souji yelled to shock it.

After the buffing, "Susano-O!" "Garudyne!" Yosuke shot wind at the golden balance.

"Amaterasu!" "Agidyne!" Yukiko burned the balance.

"Kintoki-Douji! "Bufudyne!" Teddie froze it after buffing the defense.

Chie used her Persona's spear, "Black Spot!"

"Mighty Swing!" Kanji's Persona used its flame blade to slash it down the middle.

All the while, it tried to burn them, shock them, throw them into the air, or freeze them. If they were damaged or wounded, they had Yukiko and Teddie to use "Mediarama!"

The large Shadow really wasn't that strong and Souji knocked into the air with his sword and while it was into the air, Yukiko hit it with her fan, Yosuke sliced it with the kunai, Naoto shot it, Teddie ripped into it, Kanji slammed into it, and Chie knocked into the sky with her "Galactic Punt". (I know you can't actually do that, but yeah)

"Woo! That was easy," Chie said as Yukiko applied the necessary healing.

"It was weaker than expected," Souji told them.

Rise told the group, "I'm worried about Nanako."

"Yeah, let's go," Yosuke said.

The group started walking forward when they suddenly Rise yelled at them, "Oh my god guys!" Everyone looked at her, confused.

"Is it Namatame?" Naoto asked.

"No… it's… its Rion!" Rise told them worriedly.

(This part is completely mine, and is going to be way off based.)

They ran forward to see Rion standing in front of the shadow they had seen earlier. Rion was standing in front of his other self in an area with a large amount of pillars around him.

"Rion-kun!" Rise yelled, "Are you okay?"

"I told you not to come for me…," Rion said with regret, "I told you to forget about me, Rise Kujikawa. I told you to move on, as I do not deserve someone like you."

"What are you talking about?" Rise yelled back, "I can't do that. No matter what, I can't do that."

It wasn't the big Shadow that would taunt him, but it was a different one, "You should know she would come. They all would."

"What!?" Yosuke yelled, "There's more than one!"

The real Rion turned around and said, "Of course there is more than one," as the Shadows presented themselves, "There are five."

"Five Shadows!" Souji thought, "Everyone we've seen or rescued have only had one, but he has five!? We've already dealt with his Shadow I thought?"

"Rion-san! Get away from here, leave this to us!" Naoto yelled at him, "We need to get you out of here before you get hurt."

Rion just rolled his eyes. He looked at her, "I expected you to listen to me, Naoto. I don't want you to die either."

There was another Shadow's voice that rang out, "Now, play nice, Rion. Don't upset the girl. She adores you. You taught her well, it seems."

Rion sighed, "I know I did… I have to pay attention to you. Can we get this over with already? I'm ready to die."

"Is Rion… listening to his Shadows?" Yukiko asked, "He's ready to die?"

"What the…?" Souji was wondering, "I don't really get this. Is there this many different sides of him that he can not accept?"

"That doesn't make sense. Unless he's already fought them," Yosuke suggested.

"We need to see what's going on," Souji said, "Come on, let's see."

Souji saw there were indeed five Shadows facing Rion as they all advanced forward to get a better view.

"I figured you'd come for me regardless, so I decided to stall them for you," Rion sighed, "Okay, who's first?"

"I am…, but don't hurt me, okay?" the first Shadow said meekly.

It was a scrawny-looking version of Rion. Maybe, "a younger side of Rion?" Souji thought. He was wearing the same white and black for Rion's school uniform, sans sweatshirt. He had the same glasses as Rion, however. He just had very few muscles and shorter hair.

Rion just rolled his eyes, "Oh, this is the side that is scared of my own shadow." He looked at up and down, "Funny, considering you're carrying brass knuckles. I know deep down I have to be scared."

"But do you know just how scared!?" The Shadow taunted in a nasty voice, "You have no idea! Those fools…!" Pointing at Souji, and the others, "Have no idea just how much of a loser and a frightened person you are. You rush ahead blindly without a care, whacking at any Shadow that would get in their way only because you don't want to see them get hurt. It's not like they care for you, but you just value you the fact that they want to spend a small increment of their time with you."

"I can't deny the truth being put forth in front of me," Rion said flatly, "You natter on and on like a fool, thinking I do not understand what I already know."

"Is this what he believes?" Souji asked, "That we don't care?"

"He would accept that so willingly?" Kanji asked himself, "That's bullshit. I never see Rion scared of anything."

"I can't believe he's saying that…," Rise said, "That is his Shadow saying that, and he's blindly taking it all in."

The scrawny Shadow kept going, "Even more, you run along all by yourself to reach those girls first, because you were scared they would get hurt. Now look how that turned out! They're crying and they probably want to kick your ass. You broke their hearts. You can't do anything right! You're scared of giving the right answers in school, so you sleep through class. You don't want to give input at the "secret headquarters" because you want everyone else to give their information so they can feel "special" even if they're only spouting bullshit! The reason why you didn't want them to come to find you is you didn't want them to have to see you die, or have them die with you!"

"Do you want me to call myself a liar?" Rion asked, "I am only myself, and I can't stand to see others hurt. When I hurt Rise and Naoto, I felt like I was the worst person in the world. Though you are my reflection, a Shadow who was not there could not understand what it would be like. Life is cruel, and being scared is only an emotion that one must accept to become real. I have accepted the truth that is I, so be gone, as you are only one facet of my twisted and ruined personality."

"He's unbearevable," Teddie said in awe.

"Some of the things he says… he believes in are just crazy!" Yosuke exclaimed.

The first Shadow walked away, and another one walked up. It was a spitting image of Rion, no uhh… Souji was confused. It was like Rion was dressed in Naoto's detective uniform, hat and all just with creepy yellow eyes. It sort of reminded Souji of the cross-dressing pageant. Yet, if it was Rion, the face was so much softer, it was like a girl.

"So… I hope you aren't completely like her." Rion almost smirked.

Naoto shrunk down at that, embarrassed.

"No, not quite everything," The N Shadow said.

"I'd hope not, considering you're supposed to be me," Rion said, "Naoto doesn't carry that with her, anyways," He pointed at the staff. "I know what this one is about too, so let's hurry this up."

"You don't want to prove your love to Naoto?" the Shadow said seductively, "You know you love her, don't you? Kanji fell for her, and so did you! You fell hard!"

Naoto took a step back at what the Shadow was saying, "Love… The Shadow is asking Rion if he loves me." She thought, "Does he love me?"

"You always wanted a smart girlfriend. You wanted someone you could talk to on the same level of intellect. As a bonus, she's really hot when she wants to be… or when you want her to be," the Shadow winked, "You just had to draw her out of that shy little self, but inside you didn't mind if she was shy. When that man asked, you so readily accepted, and you played along to get her with you. She's so cute when she gets angry, there was nothing more fun than messing with her, and you just wanted her to accept the fact that she was a girl, and that she loved you too. You know she always did. You kept denying the fact that you liked her, and played games with her and yourself to tell you that "You don't like Naoto Shirogane!" Well, guess what!? You love Naoto Shirogane!"

Rion rolled his eyes, "You're a broken record, and you know it. Repeating facts I already know is annoying. What I couldn't accept at first, I did, and that's that. You make the fact of falling in love sound like a bad thing. So, go bug somebody else with your endless drivel."

Naoto was speechless while Yukiko said, "Well… he does loves you."

"I know…," Naoto said, "I don't know what else to say." She was thinking, "He feels the same way I do."

Before Rion had a second to recover, another Shadow jumped in front of him to talk. If Rion had grown his hair long and dyed it red… Souji could only roll his eyes.

"Don't forget about me!" the Shadow smiled in glee.

The Shadow's yellow eyes were almost shiny. Souji thought it was supposed to represent…, no it couldn't be.

"Don't tell me…," Rise was muttering in disbelief, "That's it supposed to be…"

"Aww… Senpai, you don't love me anymore?" the R Shadow called out.

Rion rolled his eyes, "Did I say that?"

"You know you do!" the Shadow said with an overly cheery smile.

Rise looked at it, "This is supposed to reflect his thoughts on both of us?" She looked skeptical.

"Sure, the other one said you loved smart girls, but we know what you really want!" the Shadow smiled and winked at Rion, "The real deal! Someone who can hold your arm, and smile! Some real star power… someone to make you look good! Of course, that isn't what you care about, is it Senpai? You love me because I really mean the world to you. You taught me everything about being myself, and defending myself. You held me when I was sad, and picked me up when I fell down. All the time we spent together… It was magical. It was obvious that we would fall for each other. I tried to make it easy for you. Then you made a mess of it, but you came around. In the end, you love me! I would do anything for you, anything with you. The sweet, cute, and beautiful girl that you would never dare call Risette. Rise Kujikawa is the only girl for you. The girl you fell in love with," The Shadow never moved its eyes away from Rion except when she winked at him.

"As creepy as you're making it…," Rion said, "It's true that I fell for Rise too. I feel terrible that I fell for two girls at once. I'm sure that's why Kanji is planning a slow and painful death for me right now because I fell for Naoto and then placed my lips on Rise's."

"Damn right, I am!" Kanji yelled. Souji chuckled at that, and he swore he saw Rion do the same.

Rion smiled, "Spending time with… not with an idol, but with Rise is why I fell for her. There is no other explanation for this. Love makes people stupid, and I have no excuse for that."

"At least he's being honest…," Souji said.

"Too honest," Chie responded, "Some of the things he's saying… he's been saying even before the Shadows…"

Rise wasn't saying anything at all. Nothing needed to be said. But her thoughts echoed pure happiness.

"Of course, Rise doesn't have a sword with her. I believe she carries a satellite dish on her head," Rion said, noticing the sharpened fencing blade at the Shadow's side.

The fourth Shadow had come to call now, "It's amazing."

"What is?" Rion asked.

"You had the guts to actually come here. You had the guts to accept the other three, and to even tell Naoto and Rise the truth. But one thing is, you'll never be able to choose between the two, you indecisive little bastard!"

"Oh…," Rion shook his head, "This is my indecisive side. The part of me that doesn't know what the hell I'm doing, if I'm coming or going."

The Shadow almost had two faces. It looked like a theater mask, with one happy side, and one sad side. The most noticeable feature was the short bow on his back.

"Yeah, you finally admitted you love those girls, but choosing between them… Ha! That's a joke," The Shadow laughed, "You have got to be fucking kidding me! You can't make a choice to save your life."

Rion just rolled his eyes at the Shadow's words, "I think everyone knows that in my current state of mind, I could not make that choice in a million years."

Souji had to chuckle at that. He could feel and understand where he's coming from.

"Oh, let's keep going then," The Shadow said, "You don't know if you should bother going to school cause it's such a big fucking waste of time! You don't give a damn and it's not like you're learning anything. You could just show up for the exams and you'd be fine. Mandatory Attendance Policy my ass! You have the fucking school wrapped around your little finger."

"I didn't know he cussed so much in his mind," Yosuke said while shaking his head.

"And why are you here anyways? What do you hope to accomplish? Saving this girl? Such a noble plan… You go off saving your "friend's cousin" when he doesn't even give a rat's ass about you really. Really, you just decided to do this at the last minute because it was either dying here, or dying later. You'd just rather die alone that's all. You really don't even care about the investigation, do you? Half the times they ask you to come; you ask yourself, "What are we doing this time? Why are we saving Mitsuo? We know he's not the killer, or the culprit… just some jackass who killed Morooka." The only time you ever gave a damn was when you saved Rise and Naoto, and that was a spur of the moment idea. And that turned out nicely, didn't it?" The Shadow winked.

Rion sighed, "I really don't give a damn about ideals and justice right now. I'm doing it for Souji right now even if he doesn't care about me, but I'm doing this for myself. I came for Nanako and to rescue myself. I'm saving myself. If I die, I die. If I live, I live. My life isn't worth anything. I can't say you're lying, but any bending of the truth I can not accept. If you say I don't care at all for the investigation, that would a flat-out lie, but there are times that I see it as a waste of time."

Teddie said, "He needs to be careful… I could see him becoming a Shadow!"

The fourth Shadow left, and the massive Shadow that appeared before the group earlier stepped in front of Rion. His shirt and tunic were nearly bursting at the seams he was so muscular. He carried a massive ball and chain now, yet there seemed to be something odd about him… something different.

"I know everything about you," the Shadow smirked and nearly spit at him.

"Why doesn't that surprise me? You are me, after all," Rion said as he sighed.

"I know you hate them! Your supposed friends!" the Shadow yelled, "You hate everyone! Everyone treats you like gum on their shoes. You hear them talking about you. Calling you "smartass and know-it-all… You shut it all out because you don't want it to bother you, but it really pisses you off!" the Shadow yelled. He continued with a sneer, "Even worse, your so-called friends do it too! You know they talk about you behind your back. Every single one of them makes fun of you. No one will ever truly accept you, so you lock yourself away, and even those who say they love and care for you is just some pipe dream. You'll always have doubts about love. No one could ever love you. So, you try not to care, you sleep through class, but they still bother you for answers. And when you help them, they still make fun of you. You can't win. You just decided to run away and give up because you just can't stand anybody anymore!"

Rion tsked, "I don't like people because people have treated me like shit since I was born. It was conditioned into me from my parents. Sure, they nurtured the pride of a great athlete, and a brilliant mind… But, they tortured me into molding perfection. I told everyone that I loved them, but I truly hated them. Who else would train you until they break you!? Break your legs!? I have to use a walking stick while I'm walking around because of my damn trainers and my parents! That is why I feel such torment and disgust towards people when they treat me like shit! I was conditioned into not feeling anything!"

There was dead silence after the acceptance of all five Shadows.

"Well… don't disappear all at once…," Souji muttered.

The big Shadow started laughing and the group was alarmed. Maybe it was at the fact he was still here, or maybe it was the fact he was just amused by Souji's reaction.

"What is it!?" Rise yelled, "Why didn't you go away!? Rion accepted you."

"So… Did you think it would be that easy? In his heart he envies our perfection, so he must challenge us," the big Shadow said.

"Perfection!?" Yosuke asked.

"Every Shadow… is a part of me that I envy…," Rion said.

Naoto told the group, "We have to help him. We should fight with him."

Rion shook his head vigorously and Kanji stopped Naoto from running ahead. Kanji said, "This is Rion's fight. He's got something to prove."

"Well, you aren't transforming… That's some good news, I guess," Rion said with a little sigh.

"Well… don't get ahead of yourself," the first Shadow said, he was much more confident now, "We are everything you aren't."

"Oh, great," the real Rion said, "So, I should start saying my prayers now, then?"

The big one chuckled, "That won't save you. Nothing will save you now."

The scared one who carried knuckles said, "I hope you know that I have no fear."

The Naoto-ish Shadow said, while flourishing the staff, "I'm smarter than you."

The Rise-ish Shadow said, brandishing the saber, "I'm faster than you."

The one who was supposed to be indecisive said, drawing the bow, "I never miss."

The massive one just said, "I'm stronger."

Rion laughed, "I'm impressed, but I have to say; I'm just better than all of you."

As soon as he said that, an arrow flew by, and cut his cheek. It drew a small amount of blood, "Son-of-a-bitch! I guess you're right about not missing," Rion muttered and wiped it from his face.

He spun off the end of his walking stick, and extended his staff, he flipped up a card, and struck it with the top of his staff, "Reach for the Sun! Tajikarawo!" The ever-wise old hermit came forth with his own walking stick and shield. Rion told him, "Hold off the strong one, I can't deal with more than four at a time. You know what to do." Rion smiled, truly smiled, and said, "Are you ready?!"

As soon as Rion started forward he was forced to dance and parry off of the swordsman Shadow.

"Shit, you are fast!" Rion exclaimed. The swordsman just smiled as he parried off his blade, and feinted off of Rion's staff. The speedy Shadow with the long red hair, struck at the 4 and Rion had to swing the top of his staff high right. When Rion tried to counter, the Shadow feinted again, and performed a riposte, and struck at the center of his body. It forced Rion to back flip, right to where an arrow was headed. It struck him in the right shoulder. Rion gasped slightly and broke the shaft off, and spun around a pillar. He met another arrow as he tried to flank the swordsman Shadow and was forced back only to meet the Shadow with the staff.

The Shadow that looked kind of like Naoto struck downward diagonally from the left and it forced Rion him to put his staff up at a 45 degree angle to block it. But, it followed up with a strike upward from the left upwards that hit him in the left kidney, and caused him to stagger backwards in pain.

"Uggh…," Rion muttered as the Shadow gave him no chance to recover as it made a vertical attack straight downwards. Rion lightly pushed up his staff to push off the blow, but the Shadow with the sword came in from Rion's right. The Shadow had lunged in for his heart, but Rion used a burst of strength to push away the staff and duck down. Rion dodged the sword as his knee touched the ground and slid his staff across the floor, hitting the Shadow with the sword's front leg. That Shadow hit the deck.

He saw the former scared Shadow running towards him, and he rose to meet him. The Shadow threw a punch, and Rion parried by pushing it away with his forearm. Rion threw a roundhouse, which was blocked. It left him with his weight on his right foot, and the Shadow tried to backhand him, but Rion caught the blow, and tried to throw him over the shoulder. The Shadow reversed the attack and threw him.

"This is getting old," as Rion picked himself off the ground. The Shadow laughed at him as the others came back after him.

The swordsman struck high right, and Rion parried with his staff downward so he could counter with a side-forward strike to the swordsman Shadow's midsection. The Shadow, however, had feinted with its speed, and had lunged back with its own riposte, and forced Rion to do yet another back flip. He back flipped straight into the sights of the right side of the striking staff of the Naoto-ish Shadow. Rion was forced to the ground again.

"Shit!" Rion said, as he rolled away from a staff strike it tried to force on him while he was the ground. Rion jumped up from the ground, using his back to his feet. Rion tried to sweep the staff-wielder's legs with his own staff but was forced to parry a high lunge from the swordsman with a double hand grip on both ends of the staff, blade hitting the middle. Rion pushed the blade upward enough that he caught the Shadow off-guard, enough so that he could jump and extend both legs into the Shadow's chest, knocking him backwards. Rion thought it would give him a second's reprieve to deal with the staff-wielder, but he was wrong when he was hit in the kidneys and spit out a few drops of blood by brass knuckles. "Damn!"

"Rion!" Rise yelled.

"He's getting his ass handed to him," Yosuke said.

"There are four of them," Souji pointed out. Souji was worried, and he had his hand on his katana just in case.

Before Rion could completely recover, he saw the staff-wielder's weapon flying at a downward angle, so he tried to jump over it only to be nearly hit by an arrow. The arrow grazed his stomach.

"I'm being sloppy…," he thought, as Rion was being isolated by the brawler again. The Shadow used a front kick to drive him back, and threw a left uppercut that nearly broke Rion's jaw. Rion was right; this Shadow would come in without the fear of being hit by Rion. Rion twice struck him straight in the ribs with the staff, breaking at least three, but he continued to fight. Rion needed at least a short reprieve, and as the Shadow tried a right straight punch… Rion came forward and pulled the staff around the Shadow's back while he drove his knee into the Shadow's midsection. The Shadow fell to the ground temporarily.

If only this was giving Rion an advantage, because as soon as this had happened, the swordsman shot back at him, lunging at full speed at the 8. Rion slid to the ground, knowing he couldn't parry this time. This time, he used the swordsman's Shadow momentum against itself, and swept its legs out. It crumpled down like a sack. "Now we're talking," Rion muttered.

Rion still had to dodge repeated strikes from the staff-wielder even before the swordsman Shadow got up, so Rion parried and waited until the Shadow made a forward thrust. When the Shadow did, he parried, spun around, and hit the Shadow in the back of the spine.

Rion put his staff over his back while waiting for the Shadows to get up. It wasn't like he expected to finish them with those weak attacks. He thought it was amusing the Shadows carried the same weapons he did. "They are me, after all." He drew his fingerless gloves with weights on them. They weighed just over three pounds. An arrow whizzed at him, heading straight towards his heart, and Rion put the weighted "knuckles" crossed over his chest. It bounced harmlessly off.

"I hope I'm not making you sleepy?" He asked the Shadows. Rion started bobbing his head and dancing on the balls of his feet. The three had gotten up, and proceeded to charge him. Rion wasn't going to be caught off guard again. The speedy-swordsman was the first to challenge him again. The Shadow's saber went for the 3, the low right. To prevent a large hole in his intestines, Rion struck his left fist up to the middle part of the blade. This forced the blade up so it would miss Rion. Rion knew that the staff-wielder would come next. It was predicable. Rion used his peripheral vision to notice a lower-left diagonal strike coming towards him. Rion calmly thrust his fist forward to stop the staff with his right fist. The scrawny Shadow flew towards Rion, preparing to rearrange Rion's face. Rion wasn't going to have that, so he pushed the other two Shadows away by moving his arms in, then pushing them out at high speeds. Rion then attacked the hand-to-hand Shadow head-on with a punishing left-sided roundhouse.

The other two Shadows backed away slightly as it became a one on one fight. Rion and the Shadow traded punches and dodged each others. As the Shadow threw a straight right punch, Rion caught it, and threw him over his shoulder. The Shadow landed on its feet, and back-kicked him, and Rion spit out some more blood. Two quick jabs by the Shadow forced Rion to parry the blows and side punch him. The Shadow was dripping blood from its mouth.

Rion smirked, "Are you ready?"

Rion charged the Shadow before it had a chance to ready itself with his personal hand-to-hand all-out-attack. "From Heaven to Hell!" Rion's left fist had jabbed up right underneath the rib cage, and as the Shadow was rising from the punch; Rion's right fist connected with the Shadow's lower jaw. As the Shadow was still in the air, Rion removed his left fist from the Shadow's sternum and had jumped up with the Shadow to connect that same fist to the eye sockets. As the Shadow started flying backwards in a spray of a blood, Rion moved backwards with it, driving both fists into the chest, and pushing it back into the ground.

Rion calmly said as he landed, "Pray for retribution…"

Rion stepped back from the bloody mess that was the former "scared Shadow". Rion made sure to stay clear of the gray matter that was the remnants of the Shadow's cranium. He removed his now bloody "knuckles" and drew double ninjato or ninja swords from his waist.

He charged the swordsman and the staff-wielder. As the swordsman used its speed to thrust the blade at its leg to try and hamstring him, Rion drove the blade down to the ground with one of his ninjato, and tried to slice his throat with the other. It was blocked by the other Shadow's staff. The Shadow had split his staff into two parts with a chain in between the parts. Rion kicked the swordsman in the face and attacked the staff-wielder. He took his time to block an arrow with a slash from the 4th Shadow first as he thrust at the now split Shadow. The Shadow caught the first blade with the chain, and spun it out of the way, but Rion cut the chain with his second ninjato's upward strike. As the Shadow looked shocked, Rion spun around and stabbed him in the chest, before leaving him to fall to the ground as he removed the blade.

He had no time before he had to feint a move from the swordsman, and then parried another thrust from the fencer. Rion let out a breath and just crossed his swords to drive down the Shadow's next thrust with such force that the blade was knocked to the ground. Rion's first attack started at the pelvis and drove all the way up to the head.

"Too easy…," Rion muttered as he brushed a little blood from his face.

"Is it me, or is this getting really violent?" Yukiko asked.

"This is much more brutal," Souji replied, "We get bloody when we fight sometimes, but Rion is making it slow and painful. He wants them to pay for coming out of him."

"That's scary…," Rise said, "Rion's really getting hurt in the process too."

Rion just moved around the dead Shadow and sheathed his swords, and drew out his staff again. He lengthened to its maximum length and pressed a third button. This one made a small blade extend from the far side of the staff. Rion's staff had become a naginata. Rion had only one Shadow of the four he was taking on left. An arrow was shot straight at him, and Rion split it with his naginata. The fourth Shadow's bow was shaped like a longbow, which allowed for quick and repeated shots. This forced Rion to dodge or cut down offending arrows on multiple occasions. Rion slowly made his advance towards the Shadow. Rion knew that to negate the Shadow's effectiveness, he just had to close his distance between himself and the Shadow. So, Rion made headway towards the Shadow with his quick hand-eye coordination to block all oncoming shafts. Rion had made his way right to in front of the Shadow. The Shadow grabbed an arrow to use its point as a small deterrent from Rion's weapon. Rion bypassed the arrow point, and cut right past the shaft. Rion used the back part of his shaft as he swung hard and connected with the fourth Shadow's head. As the Shadow dropped the bow and clutched its broken nose, Rion rolled the naginata up and over in his hands so he could efficiently stab the Shadow in the chest. The Shadow spit out blood as the Shadow felt the point enter it. Rion dislodged the naginata and the Shadow fell to the ground, face first. Rion backed away from it. "Waste of time," Rion shook his head, retracting the point of his staff.

"That was amazing," Yukiko said in shock, "I can't believe he beat all of them."

All of a sudden, Rise gasped, "Rion! Look out!"

Rion was about to turn and look, barely putting up his staff in time before a spinning ball connected to a chain collided into his side causing a gasp and sharp cry of pain. He could barely hear a scream from Naoto as he crashed into a pillar.

---

A short time before, while Rion was fighting his Shadows.

Tajikarawo, as commanded, was fighting with the strongest Shadow. It wasn't going well. Physical attacks seemed to not work against the Shadow, so "Torrent Shot!" was out of the question. So, then… well… that was all Tajikarawo had going for it besides just banging the Shadow over the head, and that's what the Shadow was doing, but physical attacks don't work. One hit from the Shadow knocked the Persona into the ground, so Tajikarawo had to abuse "Tetrakarn". Eventually, the Shadow caught up to Tajikarawo and knocked it out of commission with one swing of its ball and chain. He had failed his master.

---

When Rion stopped rolling, he had hit one of the pillars. His naginata was in two pieces, and ripped from his hands. As Rion started to get up, his mouth was dripping with blood and he was coughing it up as well. His hands were torn and bloody. He was struggling to breathe as well. His glasses were in four pieces as well. Rion had landed on his head as he had crashed into the pillar.

"Rion-san!" Naoto yelled.

"Rion-kun!" Rise yelled at him.

"Holy shit!" Yosuke yelled.

"Senpai!" Kanji yelled.

"I don't think he can see through the fog anymore," Souji said sadly. Souji thought about interfering. But, Souji noticed about something about how strong that Shadow was, and decided to wait a second. He didn't know if he could win this fight.

As Rion pulled out his ninjato, his breathing was labored. He pointed his blades and tried to charge the Shadow. The largest Shadow easily slammed his weapon into his left leg, and loud cracking noises were heard as Rion landed hard on his back. His right blade was bent. Rion bit off a scream. Souji understood that his left leg was fragile and that his Shadow aimed right for it. Rion's leg was probably in a hundred pieces right now.

"Y… Y… You b… bas… bas… bastard!" Rion was struggling to yell at the Shadow.

"Your fault… You could have just made it quick and let the others kill you," the Shadow explained.

Rion struggled to one knee and grabbed his weighted gauntlets to shield himself as the Shadow struck again with his ball and chain. It wasn't an effective strategy as it broke through and went straight into his chest, knocking Rion back into the ground.

"You aren't worth my time," the Shadow told him, "You are me, but now you're dead."

"Rion…," Teddie called out, "Are you okay?"

"We need to take it down!" Naoto yelled, "No one attacks, hurts Rion and gets away with it."

"Y… You're right!" Chie affirmed finally. She was a little shaky, "We need to teach it a lesson."

The Shadow was chuckling at their cries for action when Rion called out, "No, don't fight it. You can't win. If you fight it, you'll only lose. You won't die on my behalf."

"Listen!" Rise yelled, "You aren't going to die! We aren't leaving without you! We are going to kill your Shadow and drag your stupid ass back here!"

Souji was a little shocked at Rise's outburst, but said, "You really think we'd let you die here after you suffered so much?"

"That's right!" Yukiko exclaimed, "We're going to beat it down!"

The Shadow laughed, "It's too late, dumbass! It's your turn." The Shadow advanced menacingly towards them.

Naoto pulled her gun, "We'll stop you!"

Before she could fire, Rion started to say as he braced himself on a broken pillar, "I… I…," he coughed up some blood. "I… I… never… I… never should have doubted them… I can't leave them. I… can't… I can't… let them die. I can die… But… they… they can't die… not while I'm alive to try and fight." The Shadow couldn't hear him, and neither could the rest of them. But still, Rion pulled a small blade from the ripped-up zipped sweatshirt that Rion abused the school dress code with. It wasn't even a knife; it was a circular object that slowly got thinner and ended in a circular sharp point, like a handle-less ice pick. Rion was on his knees holding the blade towards his heart. "I… I don't fear… I don't fear death anymore." Rion drew his last Persona card. It was shining even more than usual and covered in blue fire. He placed it over his heart, and Rion slammed the blade into the card. Tajikarawo was transforming as the blue fire flared overhead. The robe-clad elder turned into a warrior. It was a young man, in a white kimono with a silver hakama. The warrior had white gloves with the fingers showing on his hands. The Persona carried silver wrist bracers for shooting a bow. On the Persona's back was a black quiver, but instead of fletched arrow showing; it seemed that the tools of death were more like swords with hilts facing backwards. In the Persona's hands was a powerful bow made of bamboo, wood, and leather that had to be over 6 feet tall. On the Persona's forehead was a type of visor that came down over his eyes, and looked like a type of second radar. On the small part of the Persona's back, were two tiny angelic wings that seemed to flourish made of silver. (I did not copy this off of anything. It was my own idea from the start. I started this novelization a while ago.)

Rion was still on his knees as the Persona had transformed. The transformation had affected Rion as well, as it had given Rion his own sort of visor to replace his broken glasses. It was as white as snow. Both the Persona and Rion's visors came down over their eyes. Rion's voice came out uninhibited this time, "I can see… Everything!" "Rise and Resurrect! Ameno-waka-hiko!"

As the Shadow made his way towards the rest of the group, Souji's team was ready to pull out their cards when they saw Rion. Still, Souji and the others were ready to fight the Shadow when a single silver arrow-blade flew through the air and bounced harmlessly off of the Shadow. The Shadow turned at being struck, even if it had no effect. It saw the Persona drifting in the air and Rion on his knees. "I thought you went and died," The Shadow said, unconcerned, "Doesn't matter, your Persona crap can't hurt me."

"Is that Rion's new Persona?" Yukiko asked.

"…," Rise couldn't say anything but finally said, "It's so strong."

Souji yelled, "We're behind you!"

"Yes, I know…," Rion said, "As I said, I can see everything now. Including the fact that you care for me!" A sound shot out from the Persona, like sonar, "You really are what I wished to be, you know?"

"Hmm? How so?" The Shadow asked.

"You null or reflect everything. You are the "perfect" person to protect others, and help them," Rion said, "But… I can stop you now."

"Bullshit!" The Shadow said, "You can't stop me!"

"Not even you can stop this… For it is not a person," Rion said. The Persona flew towards the Shadow as it advanced towards the Persona. Rion said as Ameno-waka-hiko suddenly stopped and raised its bow, "I hope Naoto-chan doesn't mind me stealing one of her abilities." "Megidola!" The Shadow fell back after being hit by the almighty attack.

"He did steal my attack after all…" Naoto said slowly.

"He can scan…" Rise said calmly.

"Son of a bitch!" the Shadow yelled in pain. He swung wildly at the warrior Persona.

Unfortunately, this Persona was really fast, faster even the Shadow that carried the sword. It would swoop in and out of attacks to dodge the Shadow's swings. Rion didn't make it any easier for the Shadow as the Persona would wait until the last second to fly out of the way.

"Dammit! Stop moving!" the Shadow screamed, "You should be dead!"

Rion's voice was monotone, almost robotic, "Ten seconds…" "I know how to win. You are immune to physical attacks naturally, so… "How should I deal with you…?" "How about… "Tetra Break!"

The Shadow noticed his physical immunity disappear.

"It has only just begun for you. Let's continue. You are too strong for my liking, and I am not yet strong enough." "Power Charge!" and "Debilitate!" The Shadow felt himself weaken and Ameno-waka-hiko rose in strength as the Persona spun into the air and held its bow in front of him.

"What the hell!?" the Shadow yelled, "What the fuck is going on here!?"

"I'm not done… Heat Riser!" Rion commanded, as the Persona's strength rose even more.

The Shadow fruitlessly struggled to strike at Ameno-waka-hiko.

Rion taunted the Shadow, "You told me… That you are me. That is true. More so, if you are me, then you are… only human."

The Shadow tried to run, but the Persona flew towards the Shadow at an impossible speed. It appeared as if there were eight Ameno-waka-hiko's all surrounding the Shadow in the air and each one with an arrow-sword cocked and ready to fire at the Shadow in a perfect calm as if the Persona had been planning the shot for an hour.

Rion sighed, "Die… Hassou Tobi…"

All eight blades were released seemingly simultaneously from their bows and flew into the Shadow and it collapsed immediately. The Shadow contorted and seized for a short time and then, disappeared. The other dead Shadows exploded into blue flames as well.

Rion said softly as every wound on his body, large or small seemed to spurt out blood, "Everyone's safe… I can be at peace. Rise… Naoto… Shall I be the same as Ameno-waka-hiko, cursed by the gods, and die again just as I gain my 2nd life?" As he finished saying this, his Persona disappeared, and Rion collapsed in a heap.

"Rion-kun!" Naoto yelled as she rushed towards him. Everyone else ran towards his unmoving self.

As Rion was drifting in and out of confidence, Souji heard something from Rion he'd never before. He heard Rion scream in pain. It was deafening to hear. Rion's adrenaline must have worn off, and to have him scream… The pain must have been really excruciating.

"You have to do something!" Rise exclaimed, tears streaming down her face.

"Don't scream at us, Rise…," Chie retorted.

"We're trying…," Yukiko answered as she summoned Amaterasu. Yukiko used Amaterasu to cast "Diarahan!"

"Come on Rion…," Souji said, as he cast "Diarahan!" with Tam Lin. Teddie did the same with Kintoki-Douji.

"Let's go… Rion… Time to get better," Yosuke even tried to help by summoning Susano-O and using "Diarama!"

Chie, Kanji, Naoto, and Rise though, were helpless. Kanji could try and console the two girls, which they sorely needed. Kanji was jealous of Rion… Naoto had fallen for Rion, but so did Rise. He had the girl of Kanji's dreams in the palm of his hands, and he couldn't choose between the two girls. It made Kanji mad that Rion could have someone like Naoto right there and not at least love her like he should. But, that wasn't important now… What was important was making sure he got out alive, so Kanji could kick his ass when he got better.

"Guys… Rion won't heal," Yukiko informed them. Souji looked at Rion's wounds as he was trying to heal him. Rion's wounds looked really bad to Souji's limited knowledge of anatomy. Souji knew his left leg was shattered, at least one of his lungs was punctured and had collapsed, and his wrists were broken. Not to mention, the massive lacerations Rion had suffered fighting the five Shadows. If Rion wasn't healing…

"It's like he doesn't want to be healed…," Souji deducted, "Maybe Rion feels like he has done enough. He fought his demons, and that's enough."

"But… He's being idiotic!" Naoto cried out, "Why would anyone not want to be healed!?"

"Rion-kun…," Rise wiped her eyes, "Just listen to us… Let us help you."

"We need to get him out of here…," Yosuke said, "He isn't getting worse, but if he can't heal here… We need to take him to the hospital."

"You're right, Yosuke," Yukiko replied, "If we don't get him out of here, who knows what will happen." She thought to herself, "Maybe he's been poisoned worse than normal. Then we need to get him out of here quickly."

Yosuke, Kanji, and Souji carefully lifted Rion up off the ground, while Yukiko and Teddie continued to try and heal him. At least, to their relief, Rion had stopped screaming in pain. He was still grimacing so hard that Souji was afraid that he'd break his own teeth apart. Rise and Naoto stood by Rion's side as Souji told Chie, "We need to Goho-m!"

When the group left the TV world they immediately called for an ambulance to cart away their critically injured friend. The group told them that he was searching for Nanako Dojima and he was injured in the search. Obviously, Souji wasn't going to tell the paramedics that he was in the TV.

While Rion was being taken to the hospital, the others rushed behind to follow him.

There were a lot of worried people chasing behind him on foot. Naoto was thinking, "You better be alright. If they can't help you…," she wiped a tear.

The ambulance arrived at Inaba Municipal, and the doctors took Rion straight to the trauma ward. The doctors started an IV and ran diagnoses on the Persona-user. By that point, the other Persona-users had arrived. Souji entered the door and asked the receptionists where Rion was.

"Do you know if Rion is still in the ER?" Souji asked.

"Rion?" the nurse at the desk started looking up the file.

"Ishinata," Yukiko answered.

"Oh okay…," the nurse said.

"Please hurry, this is important," Chie told the lady.

"Okay, okay… Umm… I think he was just sent into surgery," the lady said as she pulled out the file saying Ishinata, "Ishinata, Rion? It's going to be a while. The doctors says he's in there for a punctured lung, internal bleeding, ruptured spleen, dislocated shoulder, broken wrist, and a shattered leg"

"Is there someone we can talk to?" Rise asked. She looked worried.

"Are you family? You might be able to talk to one of the trauma doctors if you are willing to wait," the nurse asked, "But… You will have to wait until he gets outs of surgery."

"We're his friends. We were the ones who called for the ambulance," Souji said, "We're really worried for him. He… He doesn't have family."

"Well… It might be a while. We are kind of busy today," the lady suggested.

Souji turned to the others who had formed a circle around him, "I'll stay. I don't have a lot to do. It's not like anyone's waiting for me at home. I'll probably visit my uncle in the mean time."

"Yeah, I'll stay too," Yosuke said.

"It would be wrong not to be there to see if he's okay," Kanji said.

The others voiced their agreement to Kanji's statement.

"I need to tell my grampa where I'll be," Naoto informed them. But Souji had a notion that there was more than what it seemed to what she said.

"We don't know how long it will take till he's out of surgery," Rise said, "You should hurry."

It seemed that if there were any lines of controversy of love or anger between the pair, they would be put on hold until the health of Rion would be confirmed.

"Well, I just hope he's okay," Yukiko said to the group, "I'm just scared for Rion." She put her head down, "We couldn't heal him."

Teddie did the same, "I failed too, Yuki-chan. I'm not much of a healer."

"He'll be fine," Souji said walking between them and motioning them to sit down, "You know Rion. When he starts fighting, he'll heal faster than anyone else." He didn't want Teddie to turn this into a sob fest and try to pull Yukiko into it.

Most of the group decided to take a break and rest up for a little while until they could see one of the doctors. As Souji promised, he visited Dojima to give up an update.

"We're close now," Souji told him. He didn't tell him, "Namatame is in the way."

Dojima was happy to see a visitor but anxious to see Nanako rescued, "I'm glad…," he coughed, "Just try and find her quickly… As long as you find Nanako for me."

After a few more minutes of conversation, the nurses came in to check on Souji's uncle, and told Souji that he had to leave. "He needs his rest," Souji thought as he left.

Souji went back to the waiting room and sat with Yukiko. Chie was sitting with Yosuke. Teddie was sitting next to Rise. Kanji was sitting by himself while Naoto was traveling to talk to her grampa. It had only been about an hour of waiting when a doctor came out. He stood in front of the group, and Souji was the first to stand, but Rise was a close second to walk up in front of the doctor.

"Are you his friends?" the doctor asked wearily. To tell the truth, he had only finished with the surgery about ten to fifteen minutes ago, and wanted nothing more than to rest. But then again, he was a doctor, and he had a job to do.

Souji nodded, "Is he going to be alright?"

"Well… I don't know how to explain this…," the doctor started to say.

At this Rise raised her voice, "Just tell me how he is! Tell me if he's going to be alright!"

The doctor put his pointer finger in front of his lips, "This is a hospital miss, please lower your voice."

Yukiko came in front of Rise and apologized, "I'm sorry, she's just really worried for Rion. She really cares for him. We are all worried for him."

The doctor nodded, "What I was going to say is that when we opened him up to try and stop the bleeding, or when we went to insert screws into his leg… His body was healing itself."

"Healing itself?" Souji asked, "How is it doing that?"

"I don't know," the doctor explained, "I've never seen a person's ruptured spleen start healing after we open him up."

Souji turned to the others, "Do you think it was…"

"Because we were trying to heal him earlier?" Yukiko finished.

"Yeah, it has to be," Yosuke said, "Maybe Rion realized that we were trying to heal him."

"He finally stopped acting like an ass," Kanji shrugged.

The doctor interrupted their conversation, "I need to take care of other patients so I have to leave,"

As the doctor left Chie went up to the desk and asked the nurse, "Are visiting hours over?"

"There is a little time left, so if you want to see someone you should make it quick," the nurse said.

Kanji turned to Souji, "You should probably go see Rion. If he's awake, you should ask him what he was thinking."

Souji said, "Yosuke should accompany me, at the least. Is that okay with everyone?"

Souji didn't want anyone else to come. It looked like everyone else would be okay with that. Except for…

Rise raised a complaint, "I want to see Rion! I want to see… if he's okay." She was teary-eyed again.

Souji looked at Yukiko to stop this. Souji thought that this would be that this would be no time for Rion to have to deal with someone like Rise. It would be bad enough to have to see him or Yosuke. But, Rion just dealt with his Shadows, he probably would not want to see one of his causes of the Shadows.

"Rise-chan… You're so exhausted. I don't think you can stay awake long enough to see Rion," Yukiko explained.

"But…," Rise tried to rebuke, "I'm fine." She yawned as she wiped her eyes.

"We'll go home…," Chie said, "Tell us how Rion's doing, call us."

"I'll take Rise-chan home," Yukiko nodded.

"Tell him to get better," Teddie said.

"Me too," Kanji said, "Tell him that as soon as he gets better he's getting a punch in the face."

The others waved goodbye to Yosuke and Souji before the two walked from the waiting area to the same wing where Dojima was resting. As a matter of fact, Rion was in the room next to him.

"Imagine that," Yosuke said, "We could have visited both of them in a single minute."

"I didn't know they moved Rion here," Souji shrugged. He thought, "Probably because he just got here."

The pair walked into the hospital room to see Rion with bandages on his wrists, his left shoulder in a sling, an IV sticking through his right arm, and his left leg was completely wrapped in bandages and casted. Rion was awake, oddly enough, and focused his attention on the two as they entered.

"What's up, you idiot?" Yosuke asked as soon as he reached his Rion's bed, "You scared us to death."

Rion shook his head and coughed, "You make it sound," He coughed again, "like it was something I could die from."

"And here he is," Souji commented, "sounding like his injuries were minor."

"You could have died, Rion!" Yosuke exclaimed, "Everyone was really worried for you."

Rion sighed, "I know. You had every reason to be worried."

Souji asked him as he came up to his left side of his bed, "What were you really thinking going in there all alone?"

Rion shrugged as best he could, "I thought my message explained that."

"That's not good enough!" Yosuke rebuked him, as he came up to his other side, "Why would you do something so stupid? If you wanted to face your fears, why not wait for us? You know you aren't supposed to go alone." Yosuke actually looked distraught that his friend was hurt like this.

"You know you wouldn't let me," Rion told him, pointing at Yosuke with his good arm; "You'd just hold me back from dealing them."

"You don't know that," Souji said. He looked at Rion, "What I really want to know is… What happened when you jumped in, and how close you/we are to Namatame?"

Rion took a deep breath before he started, "I was no more closer to catching Namatame than you were. It didn't help that Shadows wouldn't touch him. I don't think I ended up in the exact same place he did. I believe I ended up at the beginning of that beautiful place. But those Shadows in Heaven kept harrying me until I ended up having to stop in front of my own Shadows about a day later."

Souji shook his head in frustration, "So we are back at square one." He sighed, "So you're telling me that you meant to chase after Namatame, but you couldn't even catch him because the Shadows wouldn't attack him?"

Yosuke put his arms together, "You got that close to Namatame in one day!?"

Rion nodded, "It wasn't that hard if you run and hide. I know you are all on the verge on saving Nanako. You're close."

"Unfortunately, you can't help us, at least now," Souji told him, pointing at his injuries.

"I know, it sucks," Rion smiled. He pulled his arm out of the sling and moved it around.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Yosuke asked incredulously.

"You didn't expect me to be hurt for that long, did you?" Rion looked at him with a small chuckle, "That healed before you even got here thanks to all of you. My leg, however, won't heal so quickly."

"Why not?" Yosuke asked, "Your shoulder healed in about three hours."

Rion told him, "I've broken my leg before, you know that. There are already pins in my damn leg. It's why I'm already limping."

"Oh…," Yosuke decided to ask, "So… how long will you be out?"

"Too long," Rion explained. He sighed, but he looked like Souji already knew, "I don't know how long until I can function as normally as I can while this worthless thing is messed up," pointing at his leg, "If I leave early, I won't be at full battle capabilities."

Souji shook his head, "So I guess we'll just have to do without you. Take care, Rion."

"Right," Rion nodded, "I'll be waiting for you to bring your cousin back." He motioned to Yosuke from the bed, "Oh… How do you like the motorcycle?"

Yosuke stepped back, "The motorcycle!? What the hell were you thinking giving that to me!? I mean it's awesome, but it's yours!"

"Well… I didn't have a use for it," Rion shrugged, "Besides; don't you need a ride anyways, especially for Chie?"

Yosuke looked embarrassed, " Yeah… thanks…"

Yosuke and Souji exchanged their goodbyes with Rion before they left the ward.

Rion flagged the pair before they left, "Hey, if anyone else decides to visit… can you have them bring me one of my extra pair of glasses?" He threw a pair of keys that had two keys on it.

Souji took them, "One is for the house, I'm guessing, but what about the other one?"

"There's a chest under the bed. Just have them bring whatever is in there," Rion told them, "My glasses would be on the nightstand."

"Okay… I'll help you out," Souji nodded.

"Thanks…," Rion said.

After they got out of earshot, Yosuke said to Souji, "He may be the most reckless idiot ever, but we could have used him."

"You're right… His new Persona seems stronger than anything I have at my disposal right now. I just don't think he can use it that often," Souji agreed. He saw how many wounds opened up and how much blood spilled out when he used the spells and that attack. He sighed as he walked out of the sliding doors and began his way back to the Dojima household. He thought to himself, "That awesome attack he killed his Shadow with… Hassou Tobi? That was one hell of an attack."

---

A few minutes later, Naoto Shirogane entered through those same sliding doors. She had changed her clothes from her usual drab blue pants and button-up coat into the school uniform she was dared into wearing only a few days before, "He better be alright," Naoto rubbed her arms from the evening chill, "I can't believe I'm wearing these. If he's awake, he better be happy."

Naoto walked up to the receptionist's desk who was rearranging files. As Naoto came forward the nurse said, "I'm sorry miss, visiting hours are over."

Naoto calmed herself, and pulled out her flip badge, "My name is Naoto Shirogane, and I am a consultant for the Inaba Police Department. Can you tell me the condition of a Mr. Ishinata, and where he currently is?"

If the nurse was overly surprised, she didn't show it. She told the diminutive detective, "Mr. Ishinata is in Ward A room 145, and is currently resting peacefully. What do you need him for?" The nurse seemed to be staring Naoto down, possibly questioning her young age.

"He was attempting a rescue on a kidnapping, and he may have some answers for us," Naoto responded, "I just want to ask him while his memory is fresh." Naoto, it seems, didn't want to lie too much.

"Okay…," the nurse said, "Just try and hurry up. There are others here too that need rest."

"Thank you…," Naoto nodded as she started walking down the hallway. It was a familiar walk for Shirogane as she made her towards Rion's room. Naoto didn't even like hospitals herself. It reminded Naoto of her parents when they died. Ward A was quiet and Naoto had to calm herself for what she was going to say. "I'm not sure if I know where to start," She was thinking. Internally, she was a bit of a wreck. She didn't really know how well he was doing because it seemed like the others were gone. She hadn't bothered to contact them.

As she got to the room before Rion's, she was broken out of her thought process by a proclamation, "Shirogane!?" a voice said in confusion.

The door was open. Naoto cursed herself. She knew this ward was where Dojima-san was being taken care of. "Dammit! He probably already knew, but I didn't want him to see this," Naoto was visibly upset, but she put on a stoic face as she made a side trip to talk to Dojima.

"Good evening, Dojima-san. I was not aware you were still awake," she greeted him, "How are you feeling?"

"Yes…," Dojima responded, "Well… I'm feeling a little better." Naoto saw Dojima looking at her, "I wasn't aware you were taken to wearing that kind of…"

Naoto quickly replied she turned red, "I'm not… This is not my normal attire!"

Dojima let out a small chuckle, trying to mask out the small pain that it caused, "I understand Shirogane."

"But…," Naoto started stuttering as she was still red.

"I already know," Dojima replied.

"Did Souji-senpai tell you?" Naoto asked.

"No, your grandfather explained a little while back. He told me not to judge you on who you are in the outside," Dojima answered.

Naoto's mood darkened at this, so Dojima continued, "When I first heard of a young person such as you helping us, I was very skeptical of you. As time went on, your diligence with the case went beyond anyone… it made me second-guess my own efforts. You made easy friends with my nephew, which with your nature… I thought that would be difficult due to your nature, no offense. Yet, with all that, I see you as great a detective no matter who you are."

Naoto's mood lightened a little and the smallest of a blush formed, "Thank you."

Dojima's face turned and asked inquisitively, "Now… if I may ask… Why are you wearing that?" gesturing to her clothes.

Naoto blushed again, "My friend was just admitted to the hospital trying to save Nanako-chan." She looked at her feet, "I came to talk to him."

Dojima-san didn't laugh like Naoto expected him too, "It's Ishinata, isn't it?"

"How'd you know, Dojima-san?" Naoto asked incredulously.

"I'm a detective," Dojima responded, "He was the only one not at the accident site. I guess he was already looking for Nanako by then."

"Yeah…," Naoto looked down at her feet, "But…"

Dojima chuckled, "It also helped that my cousin was talking about him as they were walking towards his room."

"Oh…," Naoto said, "I didn't realize they had already visited him."

"They were probably just making sure he was okay," Dojima told her, "But you should go see him. You should keep dressing like that Shirogane. People can realize who you really are. Plus, I'm sure Rion will really like seeing it," Dojima almost smiled.

Naoto blushed, "I… I'll keep that in mind." Naoto knew that during all of this talk, Dojima was trying to keep up a strong face. He missed Nanako greatly. She told him as she went to leave, "You need your rest… Don't worry, we'll find her soon."

Naoto took a deep breath as she walked from Dojima's room into Rion's. Rion was asleep as she entered, and she walked up to the left side of his bed. She glanced at the IV sticking out of his arm and grimaced. She felt a pang of sorrow for the foolish boy who when she thought about it, was kind of stupid. She put her hand on his forehead; it was warm to the touch. She shook her head, she meant to see if he was awake and talk to him, but it seemed like it all for naught. "Oh well," she thought.

She removed her hand and spoke softly, "Rion… I know you meant well. You entered the TV by yourself so maybe… maybe we wouldn't have to. You confessed your love to me. I forgive you. And I… and I love you too, Rion-san… no, Rion-kun."

As Naoto started to back away from Rion, she heard a voice coming from the young man. "Is this the moment where I'm supposed to sweep you off your feet and carry you away into the sunset? Well, I can't really do that at the moment," Rion's eyes opened as he said these words.

Naoto's eyes widened in surprise, "Have you been awake this whole time?" She asked.

Rion chuckled softly, "The million-dollar question is… Would you have still said all of that if you knew I was awake?" He looked at her inquisitively with a raised eyebrow from the hospital bed.

Naoto blushed red, "Of course I would." She suddenly walked back towards Rion's bed and tapped him lightly on the head.

"Hey!" Rion said in faux anger, "That hurt." Rion was smiling.

"I get one free hit, remember?" Naoto said with a smile.

"A hit that was a lot softer than the first time, if I remember right," Rion joked, "I'm in the hospital, you know."

Naoto looked at him seriously, "I had a good reason to hit you, remember? Something about trying to reveal my identity to the group during a game of chopstick dares."

"Sure you did. If I remember right, a good number of them were drunk anyways," Rion said sarcastically. He ruffled Naoto's blue hair; "I like the clothes by the way," taking in the look of her in her school clothes, "Why did you decide to wear them? You certainly didn't have those on while we were in the TV."

Naoto put on a faux air of anger, "You were checking me out while those things were trying to kill me!?" She started to blush again, "I'm wearing them… because you like it when I wear them."

Rion's face softened, "Of course I like it when you wear those clothes. But… I also like you no matter what you wear."

Naoto continued to blush, but instead of answering the question and finishing the conversation like Rion hoped, Naoto still looked serious and almost sad.

"What is it, Naoto?" Rion asked.

"Rion… did you really mean it? When you told the Shadow that you loved me," Naoto questioned him. She was actually close to tears.

Rion's face had hardened back to its harsh exterior, "Naoto… If I had lied to the Shadow about that… If I had said that I loved you as a lie, it would have transformed. If that had happened, you wouldn't be visiting me in a hospital… You'd be visiting me in a morgue. I didn't face any actual transformed Shadows when I fought. I did not want to see what it would like transformed."

A tear rolled down Naoto's face, "I don't doubt that, but you said you love Rise too. It's just hard imagining that… I can't think of evaluating myself with her."

Rion shook his head, "It was the most painful thing in the world to admit I loved both of you. But, as easy as it was to say that I loved you, I wasn't sure yet on whom I love the most… The idea of making a decision is tearing me apart. With that said, it's not about comparing one to another. You are each yourselves, and even that is driving me insane."

Naoto wiped a tear, "A few hours ago, I couldn't fathom not being by your side after seeing you hurt. After you kissed me, after you said you loved me, there was nothing more than I wanted than for me to be there for you. I guess I can appreciate the fact if you would rather be with Rise, but even knowing that you love me means more than anything."

"Naoto…," Rion whispered.

"Thank you for making me who I am… My Shadow told me to understand and embrace that I am a girl. But you were the one to not just make me a woman, but also the one to be able make me act like one." Before Naoto started to walk away, she brushed her lips across Rion's left cheek. She whispered softly, "I love you."

As Naoto walked away from the room and the ward; then out of the hospital, she started to sob. She never could understand why she would turn into a blubbering idiot with no common sense in front of this boy. Yet, she didn't really care as long as they solved this case.

Rion sighed. "This sucks. In battle, decision-making is easy for me. But, no… this is a pain in the ass," he told himself. He closed his eyes, "Maybe, I can find some peace and figure this out. I can only dream of doing that."

Souji knew that the group needed to take a day off from searching for Nanako. They were really close already, but no matter how much he wanted to save her right away, the stress they underwent yesterday forced a day off for the group.

Souji took a deep breath and headed off to class after walking down the Samegawa. He had no real plans at the end of school today. He felt like sleeping through class. Yukiko made him stay awake during school, and he walked her to the bus at the Shopping District.

"So… we're saving Nanako after school tomorrow?" she asked Souji before she boarded the bus.

Souji nodded, "Yes. Prepare to go into the TV tomorrow."

"I'll call Chie then and let her know," Yukiko said.

"Right…," Souji responded.

The evening was another spent alone for Souji. It was lonely in there, all alone. "Hopefully not for long," he thought as he made dinner for himself from food he got a few days ago at Junes. He was the only real cook in the family after all. The teriyaki sauce covering the steak did smell good after all. He contemplated their battle plan while watching TV. He wasn't sure how, but he knew Namatame was as good as screwed when they found him. "I've got first shot at him once we save Nanako," Souji thought, "No, wait… Dojima does. Hell, we all get a shot at him."

Souji headed to bed knowing that they were saving Nanako tomorrow, no matter what. The school day was a breeze for the entire group, besides Rion, as they headed into the TV as soon as the bell rang. They met at Junes and immediately came to the lobby of the TV world. One person was late coming, and that was Rise.

"Sorry I'm late, are we ready, Senpai?" Rise asked Souji. She seemed a little relieved, yet sad.

"Yeah, let's go save Nanako," Souji answered.

"Alright, here we come, Nanako-chan!" Yosuke exclaimed.

The group went back to the "Heaven", the 8th area that they started exploring. Like before, the Shadows were varied, and caused a lot of pain and suffering as the team began their venture.

"Okay… Souji, I'm sure we'll find here in no time… What the hell is that?" Chie yelled as a knight on horseback Shadow charged the group.

Chie rolled away, while Souji stood his ground, "Tam Lin! Ziodyne!" The knight fell over.

Let's kill it," Souji shrugged his shoulders. The group charged it with weapons outstretched and soon kunai, chairs, and bullets littered its body.

The other Shadows weren't as simple. There was a samurai Shadow that kept dodging weapons attacks by Suzuka Gongen and Rokuten Maoh of Chie and Kanji respectively.

Souji tried attacking the samurai with his sword and ended up on his ass. It also reflected or absorbed all major elements.

"Tch," Naoto muttered, "All Yours! Yamato Takeru!" "Mudoon!" The Shadow disappeared.

They stumbled onto a minotaur Shadow in the 8th floor.

"Rise, are there any weaknesses?" Souji asked.

She seemed a little distracted, "Umm… no! Just hit with anything."

So, all of them just whacked it with anything and everything. It worked out pretty well.

There was this weird rocking chair Shadow with a weird looking creature on it on the corner of the 8th floor.

Yosuke struck at it and it did a little damage as it retaliated by slamming into it.

"You're mine!" Naoto said, "Mamudoon!" The black light that dissolved the Shadows made Souji happy.

There was another dancer Shadow with a sword and a heart-shaped head. "The exact kind Rion loves to dissect with his sword," Souji thought.

Nobody dueled with it, however. Without Rion, they used magic.

"Tam Lin!" "Ziodyne!" as Souji took one down with a thunder blast.

"Amaterasu!" "Agidyne!" Yukiko's flames massacred another.

"Kintoki-Douji!" "Bufudyne!" Teddie froze the rest, so Chie could use "Heat Wave to shatter them.

There was a Shadow that was basically a large arm with a large sword. All it did was slash enemies with the sword either one at a time, or all of them at the same time. It was still annoying. Yosuke's "Magarula" with Susano-O blew the swords into another prefecture.

They escaped a certain Shadow until the 9th floor. Sure, they encountered the same ones on this floor as well, but on the 9th they found a new enemy that "Really sucked," according to Yosuke.

It was a tank-like Shadow that reflected all physical attacks.

It was nice that they were weak to ice skills and light abilities so Naoto and Teddie got a workout. But, the problem was that they kept coming. They kept shooting at them though, and it was draining on the group.

They started running away from them, only to run into the samurai Shadows, or the knight Shadows. It was a pain in the ass for Souji, who had to summon Tam Lin and shoot "Ziodyne!" into the knights. The eight of them hurried up the steep stairs as soon as they found them and reached a large doorway.

Rise scanned ahead and exclaimed, "I feel Nanako behind this door!"

"Then what are we waiting for!?" Kanji asked.

"Alright…," Souji said calmly, "Let's go." On the inside, he was more excited than anyone to reach her, and they were so close.

They ran across a narrow bridge to see Namatame holding Nanako by the waist. He was still wearing his delivery service uniform, and seemed very determined. At the end of the passage was a circular platform with angels surrounding the platform.

Nanako yelled out to Souji, "B… Big Bro!"

"You son of a bitch!" Souji yelled.

"You mustn't go!" Namatame exclaimed at Nanako.

"Let go of Nanako, you psycho!" Souji yelled. The leader was in the front of everyone else, standing in the middle of the gold-brown steps.

"I'm going to save this girl…" Namatame told them.

Naoto explained, "Taro Namatame… It's definitely him! Then he did come in here…"

"So you're the killer," Yosuke said to Namatame. Yosuke was flanking Souji, ready to pounce on their killer.

"Let go of her!" Yukiko demanded of Namatame. She was standing besides Naoto on the brown steps.

Namatame started to laugh, "Ah… Haha, you're the ones I saved." He told them, "Don't worry… I'll save this girl too."

Kanji was confused, "Huh? This dude high or something? Quit talking shit and let go of the girl!" Kanji advanced a few steps menacingly.

Namatame tightened his grip on Nanako, "D… Don't come near me!" Souji was so pissed right now.

Nanako struggled and said in pain, "Nngh…"

Chie exclaimed from her position in the back, "Nanako-chan!"

Naoto tried to regain the control of the situation. She tried to calm down the hot-headed sewer, "Calm down Kanji-kun! We can't predict his behavior! We have to keep him talking. If we can discern his intentions, perhaps we can somehow deal with him." She asked Souji, "What should we ask?"

"Dammit…," Souji thought, "Nanako is in danger… What should I say?" He took a deep breath and asked, "Why are you doing this? Why did you take Nanako-chan?"

Namatame released his pressure a little on Nanako and answered, "To save them…"

Souji took another deep breath and asked, "What the hell is the Midnight Channel?"

"People needing to be saved appear…," Namatame replied, "That's why I put them into the TV."

Souji had enough of this crap and demanded of Namatame, "Let go of Nanako you bastard!"

Naoto hissed, "No, we must pull his attention away from Nanako-chan!" She took over the questioning at that point, "You put the people you saw on the Midnight Channel into this world. Am I correct?"

"They all… want to be saved," Namatame answered.

Rise asked angrily, "Did I ever ask you to save me!?"

Kanji responded, "And you didn't save us, dammit! It was the complete opposite!"

Namatame droned on, "If I hadn't put you into the TV… how would you have ended up?"

"How would we…?" Yukiko started thinking as she was saying.

Rise finished, "Are you trying to say… we wouldn't have been able to face ourselves?"

Yukiko was mad, "What…!? But we nearly died!

Namatame responded, "Yes… Exactly…"

Yosuke asked directly, "You kidnapped them… Yes or no?"

Namatame answered straightly, "Yes…"

Naoto asked the deliveryman, "Why did you target local residents who suddenly became known through the media? Why do these people appear on the Midnight Channel?"

"On rainy nights… on TV… they signal me… to save them," Namatame responded.

Souji looked at him, "Your ideal of saving people… is that ideal intertwined with murdering people?" He had to take the place of Rion…

Namatame looked confused, "Murder…? No, I'm saving them."

Yosuke yelled, "How's that different, huh? All you're doing is killing people!"

Namatame started chuckling, "Haha… If you want to think that, go ahead. I know… you chased us all the way here… to kill…" Namatame started losing his sanity, "Ha… Haha… Well, too bad… I'm… gonna to save her…"

"Ngh…," Nanako was suffering.

"Bastard!" Souji directed his anger towards Namatame.

"You asshole! You aren't going to get away with this!" Kanji yelled.

Namatame's calm and monotone nature suddenly shifted to a nasty and angry tone as he yelled, "Shut the hell up!"

Purple flames started forming around Namatame. Souji mentally cursed on the inside, "Oh shit… he's started to turn into a Shadow." Yellow irises now clouded Namatame's soul.

"What a wonderful world…," Namatame started to say, "An unknown, unreachable place… filled with pleasant fog… I'm a Savior." He seemed full of himself. He had a condescending voice, "It's filthy over there… So many evildoers…" His voice raised in anger, "That's why I'm going to save them! I'm a savior! A righteous hero…"

"Is that a Shadow?" Yukiko asked.

Nanako was struggling to get out of the Shadow's grasp. She was in real pain now and coughing, "Big bro… I can't… breathe…"

Teddie, who had been silent up to this point called out to Nanako, "Nana-chan!"

"Let's do this, guys!" Souji nodded to Kanji and Yosuke.

"Yeah…," Yosuke answered as Kanji emitted a war cry.

Kanji and Yosuke rushed Namatame and knocked Nanako out of his grasp. Naoto yelled at Souji, "Now, Senpai!"

Souji ran up to Nanako and took her in his arms, "I got you", he said, "You're safe now."

The rest of the group ran up beside of Souji to check on Nanako.

"Nana-chan!" Teddie said in worry.

"Nanako-chan… Nanako-chan!" Yukiko tried to get a response out of Souji's cousin.

Chie yelled at Namatame, "Bastard…! How dare you?!"

Namatame's voice was a mixture of a growl and pure anger as black flames formed around him as he demanded, "Give… her back… I'm... I'm going… to save herrrrrrrr!"

Namatame's Shadow began to truly transform. Namatame started to lift in the air and Shadows started to fly into him as he convulsed. The group started to back away in the amount of power the Shadows were emitting by entering Namatame. It reminded Souji of Rion's Shadow. Kanji stepped back and Naoto had to hold on to her hat as she asked, "What's happening to him!?"

More and more Shadows entered Namatame's body as he was lifted higher and higher into the air. Teddie was worried, "If we don't do something, this could be bad!" he exclaimed as he looked around, "His powers are attracting more and more Shadows to him!"

As the Shadows kept flying into his body, Chie asked worriedly as Souji held Nanako, "You guys got any suggestions?"

Rise was standing behind Yosuke and looked a little scared. She said nervously, "Look at him… He's merging with the Shadows!"

The transformation of Namatame's Shadow was complete, and it was unlike any they had seen before. The Shadow itself was something like a shrunken brown prune, but with a human form. It was clothed in a white robe. Multiple red rings were surrounding the top of his head and were circulating his body. He held his arms out and made peace signs with his fingers. Souji was in awe of this Shadow, "What the hell is that?"

The others seemed to share the same sentiment as Yukiko also asked, "What is that?" and Chie emitted, "Woah!" as the Shadow descended Teddie freaked, "Ahhh…" Yosuke wasn't amused by the Shadow descended, "Damn it! We've come this far, we are not losing now!"

Souji yelled as he grasped his sword, "Do you think we are going to run away? Hell no!"

And so the battle began with Namatame's hippy Shadow.

Namatame's Shadow yelled at the others, "I… I'm going to save her...! Don't interfere!"

"If I want to interfere, I will god damn it!" Souji yelled, while yelling, "Tam Lin!" His fairy knight appearing to attack the hippy, lance raised. "Let's zap his ass!" Souji's Persona held his lance above his head and fired "Ziodyne!" at the hippy.

It woke up the Shadow, that's for sure.

"Susano-O!" "Masukukaja!" Yosuke yelled to speed up the team.

"Kintoki-Douji!" "Marakukaja!" Teddie boosted the defense.

The group barely had time after the spells were cast to jump out of the way as "Magarudyne!" was cast by Namatame's Shadow. As soon as Yukiko finished casting "Agidyne!" with Amaterasu, Namatame countered with "Mabufudyne!". Chie and Teddie came away unscathed, but Yukiko had to be shoved violently away from the ice by Souji.

"Damn…" Souji muttered, shaking off the ice that had formed on his arm. Chie and Kanji had their physical attacks at the ready, and at least every element could be used as a –dyne skill.

Souji reminded himself that they had Naoto with "Megidola!" at the ready, which she used with her "Mind Charge!" repeatedly.

Unfortunately, Namatame could exploit the weaknesses of Teddie and Yukiko and multi-hit everyone at once. Souji and Yosuke charged at the Shadow with sword and kunai as Suzuka Gongen dove in and made a hard impact with "Black Spot!"

This kind of turned into a cycle of endless attacking. Kanji would use Rokuten Maoh for "Mighty Swing!" or attack with a chair. Naoto would use up a large amount of her energy with "Mind Charge!" to "Megidola!" It worked, but it left her drained. The others used the elemental skills on Namatame to draw its attention away from Yukiko and Teddie. Namatame would sometimes fire single "Bufudyne!" or "Ziodyne!" skills to cause serious frostbite, or fry either. Namatame wasted no time following up with the multi-dyne skills. Still, with careful planning, a lot of dodging, and the use of "Marakukaja!", and "Masukukaja!" they were able to make headway.

Unfortunately, all their careful plans suddenly changed as Namatame's attack strategy suddenly changed.

"Save her… I'm going to save her!" The Shadow yelled.

He used an attack called "Quad Coverage!" which made all but one element worthless when attacking. Of course, he used that one element to blast the group into oblivion. This particular time, it was ice skills, or Bufu. Teddie or in a lesser account Chie were the only effective people who could use magic to damage the Shadow, but Teddie was spending a lot time healing everyone but Chie from the repeated "Mabufudyne!" and "Bufudyne!" attacks. Yukiko was the most affected, and was immobilized from the cold. As soon as he stopped freezing people, and Teddie had healed her, Souji returned with a volley of "Ziodyne!" and Naoto used "Megidola!". It did a little damage on the Shadow until the rings on Namatame's head spun again and Souji felt himself thrown into the air and into Teddie.

"Dammit!" Souji yelled, picking himself off the ground, "Yosuke, attack him with wind!"

"Wind attacks are more effective! Listen to him Yosuke!" Rise agreed with Souji from a safe distance from the battle. She wasn't going to be involved. She was the one taking care of Nanako.

Yosuke took their advice and countered Namatame's "Garudyne!" and "Magarudyne!" with his own "Garudyne!" This pattern continued like this for a while, with Yukiko and Teddie healing the wounded. It only changed when electricity or ice was involved, in that case one was healing and the other was praying in a corner. It was really pissing Souji off that the amount of damage they were doing was so minimal.

Finally, after a while of going through this cycle Namatame's Shadow suddenly made another statement, "Don't… Don't get in my way!"

"Oh shit…," Kanji muttered as the Shadow went up to Yosuke and whispered into his ear. Yosuke came up to his side. He proceeded to attack Kanji with his kunai.

"What the hell is going on here!? Get off me, dammit!" Kanji yelled trying to dodge the flailing blades. Chie jumped in front of Kanji to block the kunai by pushing Yosuke's arms to the side. Chie fighting him off seemed to knock some sense in him as she kicked him in the nads.

"Damn! That hurt Chie!" as Yosuke shook his head and regained control.

"It woke you up, didn't it!?' Chie yelled back.

"Shut up you two!" Souji intervened, because the rings on "Kunino-sagiri" had spun again and was casting "Bufudyne!" all over the place trying to hit Yukiko with it.

Souji stood in front of Yukiko and cast "Ziodyne!" with Tam Lin. It stopped the Shadow in its tracks. It helped that Chie was kicking the Shadow and Naoto was shooting it.

All of this seemed to annoy Namatame's Shadow even more, "I… I…"

He went up to all of the party members except Naoto who was standing behind Souji and began whispering in their ears. They all came over to his side.

Rise gave encouragement to Souji, "Don't give up now!"

"What are we going to do?" Naoto asked as Chie and Kanji glared menacingly at her.

"We'll survive," Souji said as he raised his sword. "Persona!"

Tam Lin came forward to attack with his spear, but was interrupted by Yukiko's fan. Naoto fared no better as anytime she tried to use her Persona, she was stopped by Yosuke, Chie, or Kanji.

"Guys… come on," Naoto pleaded. She was flustered enough to nearly pull her gun on them.

Kanji advanced towards her with blank eyes. Rokuten Maoh was under the Shadow's control too, and it was about to attack, "Ziodyne!" As she braced for the boy who had a crush on her to strike her down with magic, she felt another person pull her away from the lightning and rolled her to the ground as they landed in a precarious position. She gazed into the person's eyes, and blushed as she saw a familiar face; a person that wasn't supposed to be here, but just the person she'd needed to see at that moment.

"Rion! What the hell are you doing here!?" she pretty much yelled.

"Well, your welcome…," Rion rolled his eyes, "It looked like you needed my help."

"Yeah… what are you doing here?" Souji asked, dodging Yukiko's fan as it whizzed by.

"You didn't really expect me to stay in the hospital? But if you have to know… ask her," Rion pointed towards Rise who looked confused.

---

Flashback to earlier,

Rion had his hospital bed raised so far forward that he might as well have been sitting up. He was bored, and he knew that the group was going to save Nanako. He brushed the bangs of hair out to the side and sighed. He was alone.

So when Rise arrived as he had hoped someone would, he was secretly ecstatic. Not to mention the emotions on the other side of the group.

"Rion-kun!" Rise exclaimed loudly as she ran from the doorway to his bedside and enveloped him in a hug, "How are you!?"

"Well… I was fine… Now I think I'm suffocating," Rion said with a smile as he gently placed his arms around her.

Rise loosened her grip slightly before releasing the hug, "I'm sorry, but everyone's been so worried. Well… only Souji and Yosuke knew how you were doing."

"I'm doing fine now," Rion smiled as he answered her earlier questions, "If I could, I'd come with you guys. But… the doctors and nurses here would kill me."

Rise looked down at her feet, "You know… it's not the same without you." Her eyes slowly came up to meet his eyes, "It's like we're missing something."

Rion took a deep breath and said, "I guess it's just one of those things were everyone is a piece of the puzzle."

"Yeah…," Rise nodded, "Oh…" She suddenly took a pair of glasses out from a container and said to Rion, "I got these from your place. Your room is so neat and tidy. I wish I could keep mine so clean."

"Thanks," Rion took the glasses from her, "It's difficult to find the courage to clean it every week. It gets to be a disaster." He looked with askance, "I'm guessing you couldn't bring the "other stuff" in."

"Yeah," Rise nodded, "I looked at it, and I left it in a storage locker right outside the hospital." She looked at him sideways this time, "Why do you need weapons now? You aren't going anywhere, are you?"

"Just a hunch," Rion shrugged.

"Okay…," Rise accepted his odd answer. Rise took a deep breath and closed her eyes before confronting Rion, "I want you to accept Naoto-kun, Rion"

"What?" Rion was confused.

"Naoto, she came to you on the night you were hurt, right?" Rise started slowly and softly, "She needs you."

Rion hunched his shoulders and lay back, "Is this about my decision-making skills, because if it is I'm still… I hate making them. I just… I just need some time." Rion shook his head.

Rise stared straight at Rion, "Rion... You don't know how hard it is to say this. You don't know how hard I'd want you to stay with me, but I would rather you be with Naoto-kun."

Rion sighed, "Do you have a particular reasoning behind this Rise-chan?"

"Senpai… She… You are the first person she has ever fallen for, and this isn't some innocent crush. She really is in love with you," Rise explained to Rion. Every word she said hurt inside her heart as she continued, "I… I can move on. I know how much I love you, but Naoto… I don't know what… or how long it would take for Naoto until she could move on. I don't know, you were the one who made her who she is, she could even revert to her old self if you don't..."

"I see…," Rion said thoughtfully. In truth he was a mess, as usual, when it came to love. Social problems, he was good with. If it was dealing with other peoples' relationship problems, he could do okay, but not his own. "This sucks," Rion thought.

"I guess… I'll have to think over what you said Rise-chan," Rion as he hung his head.

"Please do… Find true happiness with Naoto-kun. I just hope I can love again like I was when I was around you," Rise said with a smile, a tear falling down her cheek.

As she was about to turn to leave…

"Wait…," Rion said, as Rise stopped… Rion brushed off the tear from her cheek, "You will…"

It made Rise want to cry that much more.

---

"Are you going to get off of me!?" Naoto exclaimed.

"Do you want me to, or should I stay here?" Rion said with a smile.

Naoto blushed, "We're in the middle of a fight, you idiot, and if you didn't notice… our own friends are trying to kill us!"

"Just shut up and move!" Souji commanded. Namatame's Shadow had decided that fire was fun to play with and was shooting it all over the place. Souji ran to his left to dodge an oncoming "Agidyne!" and pulled out a card, which he promptly slashed, "White Rider!" "Let me return the favor!" "Agidyne!"

Rion had promptly moved off of Naoto and pulled out his card and reached for the small blade in his sleeve, "Rise and Resurrect… Ameno-waka-hiko!"

The silver knight appeared at Rion's side and then flew to join the horseman of the apocalypse in battle.

Soon after, Yamato Takeru joined the other two and Naoto readied her gun.

Rion interrupted them, "I'll deal with the group. You worry about Namatame. My Persona will help you. Just don't use him too much, or you'll end up killing me in mid-fight. He uses up a lot of my strength."

Souji nodded, "Just don't hurt our friends… too much."

Rion nodded and threw his new walking stick off to the side and started running off to the left side of the circular field, motioning to the possessed others, trying to get them to follow. The group blankly looked at the Shadow for a second before running after Rion, maybe sensing that he was the weakest, or that he was the easiest kill.

Soon, they were all standing in front of him, and Rion couldn't be happier to have most of his friends in front of him for battle. He grinned at the sight of them bearing his weapons towards him as he pulled out his fingerless gloves,

"I've been waiting for this," as Rion smirked at them.

As soon as he shifted the right side of his body behind him to shift the weight from his left leg, albeit a little painfully, due to the injuries suffered only a few days earlier; he was attacked by Yosuke. The right kunai sliced towards him only to be met by Rion's right hand, and as Yosuke thrust the left blade at him in the struggle; Rion grabbed his wrist and flipped him over. Without a moment of respite, Rion felt that a leg was flying towards his head. He back flipped and as another kick came from Chie, he pushed her back with a parry from his right forearm. But, he was surprised to see her stretching and rushing towards him for a powerful straight kick. Unfortunately for her, she was the one surprised when he caught her foot in mid-kick and threw her to the side. As soon as Chie stopped sliding on the ground; Rion turned his head and caught Yukiko's fan, spun around, and shot it straight back at her.

Rion rolled his eyes as Yukiko fell back. He shifted his right leg behind him as Teddie's claw tried to cut through him. As the bear lay off-balance, Rion just pushed him over.

Before he could rest, he had to flip back again as a large explosion came from where he was. The cause…? A shield landing at high speed into the ground with the weight of a punk high school student from, well Rion didn't know how he got so high into the air. Rion chuckled though, the missed strike caused the scudetto to get stuck into the ground, and when Kanji tried to pull it out; Rion launched his good foot into his chest. The resulting hit had knocked him back away from his weapon.

"See… that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Rion chuckled, looking at all of the others, who were slowly shaking their heads.

"What the hell happened?" Yosuke asked.

"You were trying to kill us," Rion said, "Again..."

Rion's explanation was cut off as he heard a yell near Namatame's Shadow, "Look out!" It was from Souji.

Rion turned just long enough to see Naoto pointing her gun at him and fire… right into his shoulder.

"Damn it!" Rion yelled, clutching his shoulder, "Naoto! You know I hate getting shot by things!"

Naoto shook her head breaking her control away from Namatame, "I was trying to kill you!?"

Rion yelled again, "Do you see the gunshot wound!? Yes!"

"Sorry…," Naoto looked abashed.

"We're still fighting here!" Souji struck at the Shadow with his sword, who countered with the Shadow's neat new attack, okay so it wasn't so neat, Souji thought. "Unerring Justice!" The damn Shadow would fly up and basically send holy light at them, "No way could this Shadow be holy," Souji thought.

"Rion! Hurry up and control your Persona again!" Souji said, "He's too damn fast to give orders to!"

---

The whole fight while Rion was taking care of the possessed members of the team was a mess. Naoto was constantly shooting at the Shadow while yelling at her Persona to use "Mind Charge!" then "Megidola!" That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, she got tired soon, and that's why she was possessed. Once the fire advantage had worn off, Souji had switched back to Tam Lin and was abusing "Ziodyne!" But, controlling Rion's Persona… Souji had no idea what the hell to do with that thing. Ameno-waka… or whatever the hell it was. So, it started shooting swords or shit at Namatame randomly, which was okay, and then Souji remembered it could do cool shit like "Heat Riser!" That Souji used on himself. Souji found the hard way that it seemed that Rion and the Persona had a very defined rhythm and Souji slowed him down, so Namatame knocked him over with "Bufudyne". "Shit… he's still weak against ice!?"

It was then they started using "Unerring Justice!"

---

"I just got shot…," Rion muttered, "Fine, whatever… Let's just finish this damn thing off before I get shot again," "Ameno-waka-hiko!" "Debilitate!" as Rion's small blade pierced the card placed over his heart. He ran towards Souji as he drew one of his ninjato with his right arm. "Let's finish this bastard! Let's do this together!"

Souji nodded, "Alright! About time!" Souji charged the Shadow with his two-handed sword drawn and cut his card overhead. "Tam Lin!" He was getting tired of summoning it over and over because of being knocked around anyways, and wanted this battle over.

"Hassou Tobi!" "Deathbound!" Souji and Rion yelled together.

Souji watched as Tam Lin strike multiple times with his spear and Ameno-waka-hiko riddle the Shadow with arrows. Souji could only smile in relief after the barrage made Namatame's Shadow drop to the ground in purple flames and dissipate.

Namatame returned to his original form as he hit the ground, hard. He struggled to his feet, "D… Dammit… Why!?" Namatame said in frustration at his failure. He fell over again.

"It's because you were stupid enough to kidnap my cousin, dumbass!" Souji explained.

"N… Nanako-chan!" Rise yelled out in worry, drawing Souji's attention back to his cousin. He ran away from the collapsed bastard, and back to Nanako.

Rise was holding Nanako in her arms, "She looks like she's in pain… but she doesn't seem to be injured anywhere."

"This place must not be good for her!" Teddie explained, "We need to carry her out, quick!"

Souji took Nanako from Rise and started carrying her as fast as he could out of the white "paradise".

As they started to follow Souji, Naoto gestured towards Namatame and said to Kanji and Rion, "We should take him with as well."

"As much as I want to leave him here, we can't," Kanji said.

Rion reattached the end of his staff and with Kanji threw Namatame over their shoulders.

They were finally finished with this place, but it wasn't a happy feeling as they left.

---

(Okay… we had one huge 1 v 5 Shadow or whatever. Don't worry; Souji will get his shot with a 1 v 1 too in the novella. This is the last where Rion is over controlling in the main story. If you think Rion's Persona is too strong, he almost never uses it because it uses up that much wear and tear on his body.)